FY18 NEA Grants to Orchestras

NEA FY18 Grants Support Orchestral Concerts and Community Programming

May 10, 2018, Washington, D.C. - The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded 87 grants to orchestras through the Grants for Arts Projects categories in FY2018, totaling $2,217,500. In FY18 orchestras directly received NEA grant support through Challenge America and Art Works in the discipline categories of music, arts education, and media arts. Awards to all arts disciplines through the NEA’s largest grant categories – Art Works and Challenge America – numbered 1,976 and totaled $48,871,000.

In addition to the grants awarded through the Grants for Arts Projects categories, FY2018 funding supports the following:

Congress requires that 40% of NEA grant funds be made available directly to the states; 63 awards totaling $50.4 million has been awarded through Partnership Grants to state and regional arts agencies. Orchestras, in turn, benefit from grants at the state and local level.

Additional FY2018 grants include $550,000 in Research Grants and funds to national initiatives, including but not limited to the NEA/Walter Reed Healing Arts Partnership, the Big Read, Poetry Out Loud, literature fellowships, Our Town, and Creativity Connects – which awarded $27,000 to the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra to support Soul Strings, a music-informed therapy program hosted collaboratively with the Arc of Greater New Orleans, $76,000 to the Philadelphia Orchestra to support a music therapy program for Philadelphia's homeless population in partnership with Broad Street Ministry, and $18,000 to the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra to support Music as Medicine, a partnership with Sanford Health and Avera Health that will offer live music as a form of therapy.

Deadlines for FY19 grant applications have been posted, and the League's customized tips are available for orchestras interested in applying for NEA support.

The League has compiled the project descriptions for grants to orchestras and grants related to the orchestra field. Complete lists of grant amounts and project descriptions for awards in all disciplines may be found on the NEA web site.